Product Description

This is a comprehensive account of the religious dimensions of the UFO/flying saucer experience.

The Gods Have Landed is a comprehensive account of the religious dimension of the UFO/flying saucer experience. It examines the religious meanings attached to UFOs by the larger society as well as specific movements that claim inspiration from "Space Brothers" and other extra-terrestrial sources. It addresses the religious dimension of the phenomenon of alien abductions, particularly the impact of extra-terrestrial life on Christian theology.

Of special interest are the surveys of primary and secondary materials that make this book the indispensible reference on the subject.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1223953 in Books
• Published on: 1995-03-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Amazon.com Review
The respected psychoanalyst, Jung pointed out many years ago that we had lost the ability to believe in salvation through a deity. In this age of doubt, when miracles are scarce, where will we, as a race, find our salvation? The interdisciplinary essays in The Gods Have Landed attempt to answer this question by exploring the UFO sighting/abduction phenomenon as a 20th-century religious experience. Even if you don't believe that reports of UFO abduction are true, this book will prove fascinating to anyone with an interest in UFOlogy, sociology, psychology or religious studies.

Review
The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds examines the religious meanings attached to UFOs by the larger society as well as specific movements that claim inspiration from "Space Brothers" and other extra-terrestrial sources. It addresses the religious dimension of the phenomenon of alien abductions, particularly the impact of extra-terrestrial life on Christian theology. Of special interest are the surveys of primary and secondary materials that make The Gods Have Landed the indispensable reference on the subject. The essays offering a comprehensive account of the religious dimensions of the UFO/flying saucer experience are The Contactees - A Survey; Religious Dimensions of UFO Phenomena; Religious Dimensions of the UFO Abductee Experience; Unarius - Emergent Aspects of an American Flying Saucer Group; Women in the Raelian Movement - New Religious Experiments in Gender and Authority; Waiting for the Ships - Disillusionment and the Revitalization of Faith in Bo and Peep's UFO Cult; Spiritualism and UFO Religion in New Zealand - The International Transmission of Modern Spiritual Movements; ExoTheology - Speculations on Extraterrestrial Life; UFO Contactee Phenomena from a Sociopsychological Perspective - A Review; and The Flying Saucer Contactee Movement 1950-1994 - A Bibliography. -- Midwest Book Review

About the Author
James R. Lewis is Senior Editor for the Center for Academic Publication and Senior Research Fellow for the Institute for the Study of American Religion. He is co-editor of Perspectives on the New Age, also published by SUNY Press, and editor of Syzygy: Journal of Alternative Religion and Culture.

Customer Reviews

The Gods Have Landed
I like this book because it is more objective perspective, not from the UFO true believers camp. Although from an academic viewpoint, most of the reading is interesting and would make a good resource book for any library. Its illustrations help put a face on the many types of flying saucer organizations. It contains an extensive bibliography, as well as an early history of the Heaven's Gate phenomenon (before they committed suicide). Fascinating chapters on Unarius and the Raelians. Lots of information all in one place, even a few statistics.

Highly Memorable
I read this book about seven years ago and I still remember it as one of the most enjoyable books of the many I've read. Each chapter takes a look at a different cult that has/had sprung up out of some excitement over the possibility of aliens. The analysis is qualitative and not overly theoretical (nor mildly journalistic).

A FASCINATING LOOK AT SO-CALLED "UFO RELIGIONS"
James R. Lewis has edited/published many books about "alternative" religions (e.g., The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions), and has even edited a more recent and detailed work on UFO religions (The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of UFO Religions).

Nevertheless, this earlier (1995) book is well worth reading, for those of us with an interest in the "religious"/spiritual side of the UFO phenomenon. There are ten chapters, written by persons as noteworthy as J. Gordon Melton, on subjects such as "Contactees: A Survey," "Religous Dimensions of the UFO Abductee Experience," "Religious Dimensions of the UFO Abductee Experience," as well as separate chapters on Unarius, the Raelian Movement, Heaven's Gate, etc.

There is also a HUGE Bibliography on the "Flying Saucer Contactee Movement 1950-1994."

This should certainly not be one's ONLY book on the subject, but it is a volume well worth reading for persons intersted in "UFO religions."